This is My Heart, it's on the Line
by lee.s.pluto
Summary: Nico di Angelo just wants the teacher in the room next door to stop being so loud. / high school teachers!au for solangelo, just a short oneshot to calm me down during ap week. / title from selene by imagine dragons


**i wrote this about a week or two leading to and a week following my ap exam to destress so if its awful, just know that its because my brain is currently malfunctioning.**

Nico di Angelo relished in the calm, quiet atmosphere as his world history class wrote a DBQ. With no distractions, they were all pretty focused.

Suddenly, a large amount of talking and shouting started, and Nico stiffened, a glare already on his face. This was a regular occurence- the English teacher next door seemed to love giving his students very loud periods of free time.

"I'll be right back. Keep working," Nico instructed his class. As he walked out, he heard his students murmur quietly.

He entered the classroom directly besides his own, and almost immediately, the juniors in the class fell silent.

"Solace, did I not specifically tell you that my students needed a _quiet _class today to work on AP exam prep?"

Nico's infuriating coworker, Will Solace glanced at his students gleefully.

"Oops," he said. "Must've forgotten. My bad. Looks like we're just gonna have a _quiet _free time today."

Solace's students started to mutter happily among themselves.

"Just keep it down, got it?" Nico practically snarled. Solace gave an insufferably fake innocent smile.

"You got it!"

Nico returned to his classroom with a sigh, sitting down at his desk.

"_I wonder what happened_," he heard a student whisper.

"_I don't know, but at least one of the juniors will fill us in_," answered another.

Nico sighed in defeat and let his head hit his desk.

.o0o.

It was Friday evening. The weekend at _last_. He still had a large pile of ungraded DBQs waiting for him and his US history class's essays to grade. But here he was, at a McDonald's with his two most clingy friends because _"you never spend any time with us anymore"_.

"Okay, look," Jason said. "You haven't done anything social in like, a month. You're always either alone or surrounded by teens now that Thalia's moved in with Reyna. Stop scowling at us."

"Oh, I know!" Percy interjected. "We should find him a boyfriend."

Nico glared even more intensely, if that were possible, at Percy and his waggling eyebrows.

"No. Not a chance," Nico said decisively.

"Why? Do you _like _somebody?" Percy teased.

"God, you sound _just _like my students. Of course I don't-"

The words were right on Nico's tongue. He was in the process of saying them. But suddenly, he couldn't choke them out, and he thought of Solace. A silence stretched out as Percy watched, amused, and Jason waited expectantly.

"Oh my God, I do."

"Who is it? What's he like?" Jason asked immediately while Percy roared with laughter.

"Percy, _shut up_, people are looking at us-"

Once again, Nico stopped midsentence. There, at the counter, grabbing some food, was a tired looking Will Solace.

"_Shit_," whispered Nico. "Okay, well, this has been fun but I see a coworker so I should probably go."

He started to stand before Jason grabbed his arm and yanked him back down.

"You never care when you see a coworker, you just ignore them," Jason noted, narrowing his eyes. Percy had fallen silent, watching the pair in interest.

"He has a crush on the coworker!" Percy whispered, a huge, delighted grin lighting up his face.

Nico covered his burning face with his hands.

"Oh, hey, Neeks," said a voice.

"Don't call me that!" Nico snapped, looking up to glare at- Will Solace. Great.

"Woah, okay, sorry!" Solace responded, still grinning.

"Oh, hey, look at that, Jason and I gotta go!" Percy said, glancing at his phone.

"But-" Jason started to protest.

"C'mon, _let's go_," Percy insisted, dragging Jason away.

"Oh. That was... interesting," Solace commented. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"Sure," Nico said. Exhaustion lined hid voice. "Don't mind my friends. They're idiots."

"They seem a lot like my friends," Solace admitted. "You okay? You look pretty tired."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just have a shit-ton of homework to grade. I had to take a break."

"I feel ya. Some of my AP students use the most pretentious words."

"Better than my juniors," Nico agrued. "One of them spelled new wrong. _How _do you mess up the phrase 'new world'?"

"Okay, that is pretty bad," Solace said. "If you need any help, just give me a rubric, expectations, and a pile of essays."

"That... would actually be really helpful. Thanks."

"Of course! Just bring them on Monday, you know where my classroom is."

The recent incident of Solace's disruption tugged at the back of Nico's mind.

"And you know, another thing," he decided to add before he could change his mind. "Have you noticed our students... are very invested in our interactions?"

Solace's grin grew at the statement. "Oh, yeah. Some of my students have even started timing how long it takes for you to come yell at me. It's quite fun, for me at least."

Nico frowned. "Well, it's not very professional. I don't know, I just feel kinda weird about it all. Like, we hardly ever even talk outside of those specific scenarios. What are they even expecting, anyways?"

The only response Nico recieved was a shrug, which was pretty uncharacteristic for the English teacher- but then again, the teacher in question was currently eating, and no longer trying to exemplify beautiful syntax for his students.

.o0o.

Monday arrived all too quickly for Nico's liking. He still hadn't finished grading DBQs, mostly because some specific idiotic friends kept inviting themselves over, and he had only barely gotten through the essays from his other class.

The history teacher had decided to approach Solace for help during lunch, since that would be the best opportunity to explain his grading process uninterrupted.

However, the last period before lunch, Solace walked in in the middle of instruction.

Nico looked at him in surprise. "Oh, hello, Solace."

"Hey, Nico. Forgot you had a different prep period than me, I was just gonna help with those DBQs. Sorry."

"It's fine," Nico said after a moment, thrown off by the usage of his first name. "I'm almost done, if you just wanna wait over at my desk."

Solace nodded and wandered over to mill by Nico's desk, studying the decorations with curiosity. Trying not to let himself be distracted, Nico focused back in on his lecture, which really was almost done.

"Okay, you guys are gonna do a worksheet now on the affects of World War One. You can work together in groups if you wish. Jonathan, can you pass out these papers?"

Nico passed the papers off to the student closest to him and approached his desk. Solace was studying a framed picture.

"Oh, that's my sister, Bianca, and I," he told Solace. Nico gazed at the photograph for a moment, trying to stop his throat from closing up.

"You look so tiny. How old are you in this, anyway? You look, like, six."

Nico was painfully aware of the students nearest to his desk sitting in perfect silence, barely even daring to write.

"I was ten," was his response. What he didn't mention, for fear of being unprofessional, was that two months after that picture was taken, his sister died. "My sister was twelve."

"You two must be close, if you have a picture of her on your desk."

"We were."

Nico could see Solace tilt his head, eyebrows scrunched questioningly, but no question ever came, thankfully.

"That's my half-sister, Hazel, exactly one year after we met," he continued, touching another photo. "She's in art school, currently."

After allowing himself a more happy smile, Nico pulled open a drawer full of papers. "Anyways, here're the DBQs. And the rubrics."

He went on to explain his criteria for grading briefly. "Thank you, so much, for the help. I'm gonna go mill around my students and see if they have any questions."

"No problem, glad I could help!" Solace said with a large smile. He ran a quick hand through his curly blond hair and _why was Nico noting those little details_.

Nico shook his head as if that could shake away his thoughts. Folding his arms, he started to stroll down the rows of desks. The gentle talking, which bordered on mutters, grew to a normal level of talking over the course of about ten minutes. The history teacher scowled at the reminder of how nosy his students were.

With a swift glance at the clock above his door, Nico noted that his class was ending in a few minutes.

"Okay, everybody, three minutes to the bell. You all can pack up now."

Instantly, the talking swarmed again as students fought to talk to their friends over the sound of a couple dozen kids shoving their homework into their backpacks.

Nico trudged back to his desk, exhausted, as his students flowed out the door. A couple shouted out a "bye, Mr. di Angelo" or "have a good day!"

The teacher dragged a chair away from a student's desk and plopped down in it, right next to his desk where Solace sat, working diligently.

"You should probably go eat your lunch, now," Nico suggested, rubbing his dark eyes in exhaustion.

"Oh, I forgot it at- uh... sorry," Will said, dropping the red pen he was using to grade. "I forgot my lunch at home."

"I was planning to- uh, to go buy something for lunch today if you- um, if you wanted to come with me."

It was one nervous sentence after the other, Nico noted. He also noticed how similar this felt to asking someone out on a date and immediately tried to banish the thought.

"Oh, okay! That sounds really nice, thanks!" Solace said, standing. He paused for a moment, checking his pockets. "I have my wallet, let's go."

The two walked out to Nico's car quietly. Soon, they were off school grounds.

"How's McDonald's sound? It's nearby, cheap, and the food is pretty fast," Nico asked.

"Sounds good," Solace chirped.

They drove through the drive thru and quickly obtained their lunch. By the time they made it back to school, there was still plenty of time before lunch ended.

"Why don't we just eat here and go inside after?" said Nico. _That was weird_, he thought to himself. _Why'd you ask?_

"Okay," Solace agreed, much to Nico's surprise.

Nico sat quietly as they ate, his mind churning. "Hey, Solace," he said after a moment.

"Why do you always call me Solace," complained the other man.

"Because it's your name...?" Nico answered after a confused pause. "I didn't realize it bothered you."

"You can call me by my first name though!"

"It's just... not professional in front of students," Nico pointed out.

"That's your excuse for everything. But anyways, I don't mind!" Solace insisted. "What were you gonna say earlier, though?"

"Hmm? Oh... yeah. I was just wondering... I realized I never asked _why _you disrupt my classes. Like, I talked about our students' reactions, but never the reason why they happen." Nico was rambling. He always did when he was nervous.

Solace- no, Will turned bright red and turned to face the other direction. "Oh. That. It's, uh... like, you know... like, when a kid has a crush, sometimes he teases the kid he has a crush on, right? Because he doesn't know what to do, y'know? It's like that."

Nico's heart was pounding so heavily, he wouldn't be surprised if a student passing his car could hear him. His eyes, widened in surprise, stayed focused on Will's profile.

The other teacher glanced at him awkwardly. And a little scared, too, Nico guessed.

"You- uh, you like me? Like, _me__?_" Nico stammered out.

"Y- yeah. Like, you're so dedicated and really smart, and I love our bantering and stuff and-"

Nico had to put a stop to the poor guy's suffering. "Will," he said quietly.

Will's head turned quickly, staring at Nico with wide eyes.

"I like you, too."

A large smile broke out on Will's freckly face, his blue eyes sparkling.

Then, because he couldn't help himself, Nico kept talking. "God, those students must have rubbed off on us, we sound like teenagers."

Will laughed, sending Nico's stomach into a swoop.

"Speaking of students, we should probably get back to ours, as lunch is almost over..." Will pointed out. "But we're picking back up on this conversation after school, got it?"

Nico nodded, looking at the time. "Yeah, let's go."

The two got out of the car and walked into the school and towards their classrooms.

Will halted by Nico's door. "I'll see you after school," he said. Nico nodded. But how was he supposed to focus on getting through the next three periods when all he wanted to do was sit down and figure things out with Will?

At least he only had to teach two class periods- seventh period was his prep period. And his US history class was watching some videos. So really, all the work he had to do was provide a lecture for his fifth period class. Easy enough.

Nope. It was much, much harder than he initially expected. For the first time, probably ever, Nico simply couldn't focus. He was stammering and trailing off and constantly glancing at his presentation being projected behind him.

It was bad enough that one of his students asked if he was feeling alright, which snapped him out of his thoughts enough to allow him to say a brisk "fine, just distracted" and succesfully focus in on his presentation. His distraction shouldn't penalize his students' education, after all.

Sixth period was pretty easy, fortunately. He played the first video and went to grade more DBQs before realizing Will had all of them.

"I need to go retrieve some papers. _Do not_ go crazy while I'm gone, I _will _know," Nico told his students, adding a fierce glare to ensure their good behavior.

He briskly left his classroom, knocking on Will's door which was, for once, closed. The door opened, revealing a room of kids silently testing.

"Oh, sorry, didn't realize you were testing," Nico said quietly, trying not to disrupt the students. "I just wanted some of the ungraded DBQs, you accidentally took all of them."

"Oh! Yeah, okay, they're on my desk, take however many you want."

Nico walked past the testing students silently, glancing to see what they were testing on. _Of Mice and Men. _Must be a sophomore class.

When he got to the desk, he couldn't help but study the decorations on top. There wasn't much- just a small bisexual pride flag in a cup full of pens. It wasn't a surprise to find the desk so neat- regardless of how unprofessional Will could be, he always was highly organized.

His DBQs were in a neat stack on the left side of the desk. He grabbed what he estimated to be half the stack and turned to leave.

Nico waved to Will as he left the room, quickly ducking back into his own. His students were talking to each other while the videos played on, but they soon fell silent when they saw he had returned. He sat back down at his desk and looked at the papers before him.

A small yellow sticky note was stuck on the top that simply said _u got this :)_.

Nico smiled and tapped the sticky note once before peeling it and placing it on his monitor. Why had Will put it there? Regardless, it was adorable.

By the time the last period of the day was over, Nico had gotten through roughly half of his stack of DBQs. Just as he finished grading a paper, there came a knock at the door.

"It's open," he shouted. There was a moment of hesitation and then the door opened, Will stepping inside.

"Hey, Nico."

"Hey, Sol- Will. Hey, Will."

He gave Nico a smile at the fumble. "So..." he trailed off. Nico's mind instantly hurtled back to their earlier conversation.

"You like me," the history teacher prompted. After a moment, he amended his statement. "We like each other."

"Yeah. Do- um, what do we do? Damn, it's been a hot second since I've done... this," Will said, gesturing at the two teachers vaguely.

"A date would be nice," Nico said dryily, a slight smirk on his face.

"Oh, yeah, of course- uh, am I expected to ask you, or, y'know...?"

Nico's smirk slowly grew to become a genuine smile. Will's nervous blabbering was just really, super endearing to him.

"Will Solace, will you go on a date with me?"

Will stopped talking and, after a second, allowed a giant smile to appear on his face. "I- yeah. Yeah, I'd love to."

"Good. Write your number on my sticky note and I'll tell you when I'll pick you up sometime tomorrow. Does Friday suit you fine?"

"Yeah, Friday's perfect." Will, seeming completely dazed, put down his pen and stood up. "I gotta go grade tests now. See ya!"

.o0o.

The week had passed in a blur of anticipation. Friday was the worst day by far. All day, all Nico could think about was Will, and the date they were gonna have, and how nervous he was. His only reprieve was lunch- when he was talking to Will.

He had decided that directly after they got off work, they would go on their date. When the final bell rang, he almost packed up, but reminded himself that he still had to stay for an hour longer.

Tapping the blank screen of his phone, Nico remembered the alarm he had set earlier in the week. He sighed and kept working on his work.

In the time between the end of school and the end of work, he was surprisingly productive. Nico had graded all of the worksheets he had given his students on Thursday, he had had a very interesting discussion with one of his former students, whose mother was a teacher and whom she had to wait for for a ride home, and he managed to only check his phone thirty-seven times. Okay, he wasn't proud of that last one, but he expected a higher number.

With alarming speed, Nico stood up, turning off his alarm. Then, taking a moment to collect himself, he walked a normal pace across his classroom and towards Will's.

Nico brought his fist down to knock, but his knuckles never connected with the wood. Instead, it fell awkwardly between him and Will.

"You... ready to go?" Nico asked, running a hand through his hair nervously.

"Yeah," Will replied, a grin on his face.

The two walked out of the school and to Nico's car, hopping in quickly. "So, what're we gonna do?" Will asked, curiosity blatant in his voice.

"If it's good with you, I was planning on a picnic," responded the other teacher, glancing over briefly as he drove.

"Aww, I didn't know you were such a romantic!" cooed the English teacher.

"_No, _I am _not_," Nico said scathingly.

"There's nothing wrong with it. It's cute," Will said. "But if you insist, then I am looking forward to our completely unromantic picnic."

Nico scoffed. "Nice try," he practically snarled. "But anyways, we're here."

He had stopped at a park. They had parked by a playground, but when they stepped out of the car and Nico had grabbed his cooler and basket, they walked in the other direction, towards the forest.

Nico would never admit it, but Will was right. He had been a little romantic when he was planning the picnic; the spot he stopped at was carefully chosen, the sandwiches he brought were homemade, and he had even made the lemonade his sister Bianca always used to make.

The two teachers sat down on the blanket Nico brought and ate their food, talking happily the entire time.

Nico di Angelo relished the calm atmosphere and gentle conversation. Will gave him a smile and he knew: this was exactly where he was supposed to be.


End file.
